Monday, May 15, 2006
Predicting the Unpredictable
Way back when, July actually, I made a series of predictions, in much the same way that other bloggers did. I thought about checking them out on a monthly basis initially, but eventualy decided that was too boring, so haven't reviewed them since before Xmas.
Here's how I did:
1. Chelsea will go through the league season unbeaten. Well, that one is wrong. Chelsea did get beaten, in fact five times in the league! But some of those were very late in the season (Blackburn, Newcastle) after they had won it. The incredible Chelsea statistic obviously their home record, with 18 wins and a draw (against Charlton of course!).
2. Chelsea will concede less goals in a season than anyone has done before. The record was 15 set by Chelsea last season and this time round they conceded a whopping 22! The worst day for them was at Boro, where they got hit for three...
3. Graeme Sounness will become the first Premiership managerial casualty of the season . He did get sacked, but he wasn't he first (Perrin of Pompey). Not even Michael Owen could save him.
4. El Hadj Diouf will spit at a fan...again! Nope, wrong again - maybe next year?
5. Charlton will win a game featuring Mark Halsey or Graham Poll as ref!!! Correct here - Halsey reffed the away game at St Andrews, but we still haven't broken our Poll duck.
6. Arsene Wenger will claim to have seen the reason one of his players got sent off. Yes, right again, but each time Mr wenger does see it is was an error by the referee and he doesn't now why...Maybe the view will be better at the new stadium?
7. Rio will be boo-ed. Yep! If you take 85 days to sign the contract on the table, expect the fans wrath.
8. Rooney will swear at a ref and be sent off. Nearly, but not quite...swearing at Becks and Rio during the England games didn't work but a handclap for the ref did. Since then, Wazza has been amazingly well behaved. Shame he's injured!
9. Several England regulars will get long term injuries just after Xmas and will be forced to miss the World Cup. Yep, bang on, probably. Early season niggles (Gerrard, Neville, Terry etc) have given way to full blown doubts about a number of players (Rooney, Owen, Ashley Cole, Campbell...even Luke Young!). Sven doesn't care though - he's still picked them!
10. Rangers and Celtic will once more attempt to join the English league through the back door This happens every year so it wasn't too hard a prediction to get right. Why don't they enter a team in the lower pyramid and work there way through a la AFC Wimbledon (just two divisions shy of their former namesakes now...).
So I got five right, and two sort of's (Sounness and Rooney) which isn't too bad. The shocking thing is the ones I got wrong - well done Wayne and Hadj, and come on Chelsea you useless bunch of slackers - who'd have thought eh?!?
Here's how I did:
1. Chelsea will go through the league season unbeaten. Well, that one is wrong. Chelsea did get beaten, in fact five times in the league! But some of those were very late in the season (Blackburn, Newcastle) after they had won it. The incredible Chelsea statistic obviously their home record, with 18 wins and a draw (against Charlton of course!).
2. Chelsea will concede less goals in a season than anyone has done before. The record was 15 set by Chelsea last season and this time round they conceded a whopping 22! The worst day for them was at Boro, where they got hit for three...
3. Graeme Sounness will become the first Premiership managerial casualty of the season . He did get sacked, but he wasn't he first (Perrin of Pompey). Not even Michael Owen could save him.4. El Hadj Diouf will spit at a fan...again! Nope, wrong again - maybe next year?
5. Charlton will win a game featuring Mark Halsey or Graham Poll as ref!!! Correct here - Halsey reffed the away game at St Andrews, but we still haven't broken our Poll duck.6. Arsene Wenger will claim to have seen the reason one of his players got sent off. Yes, right again, but each time Mr wenger does see it is was an error by the referee and he doesn't now why...Maybe the view will be better at the new stadium?
7. Rio will be boo-ed. Yep! If you take 85 days to sign the contract on the table, expect the fans wrath.
8. Rooney will swear at a ref and be sent off. Nearly, but not quite...swearing at Becks and Rio during the England games didn't work but a handclap for the ref did. Since then, Wazza has been amazingly well behaved. Shame he's injured!9. Several England regulars will get long term injuries just after Xmas and will be forced to miss the World Cup. Yep, bang on, probably. Early season niggles (Gerrard, Neville, Terry etc) have given way to full blown doubts about a number of players (Rooney, Owen, Ashley Cole, Campbell...even Luke Young!). Sven doesn't care though - he's still picked them!
10. Rangers and Celtic will once more attempt to join the English league through the back door This happens every year so it wasn't too hard a prediction to get right. Why don't they enter a team in the lower pyramid and work there way through a la AFC Wimbledon (just two divisions shy of their former namesakes now...).
So I got five right, and two sort of's (Sounness and Rooney) which isn't too bad. The shocking thing is the ones I got wrong - well done Wayne and Hadj, and come on Chelsea you useless bunch of slackers - who'd have thought eh?!?
